This Preview is Rated NC

Last weekend, I and my ‘I’m just coming to be sociable’ partner saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes at the ICON Theater on Roosevelt Road in Chicago’s South Loop. The crowd was sparse, and predominantly African-American. Apparently, not too many people want to see a movie at 10:30 on a Saturday morning, even if the tickets are cheaper.

We sat through the requisite onslaught of movie trailers before the feature started. At some point during the cheesy explosions, car chases, corny dialogue, and overly dramatic music, Laurence Fishburne caught me off guard. There he was in the upcoming bio-terror-flick, Contagion, sandwiched in among the likes of Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Bryan Cranston. He was, I believe, the only actor of color that I’d seen thus far. And by the end of the trailers, he was the only actor of color I’d seen on the screen, period. Had any of my fellow moviegoers noticed? In the field of Education, we refer to what is explicitly not covered as the null curriculum (NC). I made a mental note to do more digging when I got home.

And dig I did.  And learn I did. Movies trailers are telling, more telling than we realize. On movieweb.com’s listing for Contagion I had to click ’12 more cast and crew’ to view Fishburne’s credit. On IMDB.com, I learned that he is cast as Dr. Ellis Cheever.  He made it into the trailer. The Asian actor, Chin Han, is also in Contagion; there is no information on the role he plays. After re-watching the trailer online, I see that he, too, made it in, albeit briefly.

Elliot Eisner argues that the null curriculum, what is not covered, “has important effects on the kinds of options one is able to consider,” (1994, p. 96). What options can be reasonably considered by those watching these trailers, particularly people of color or women of any color? What film roles are suitable for them?  Fishburne’s character in Contagion has an authoritative—though supporting--role to play in the story: he delivers vital information at key points, helping to move the narrative forward. Not too shabby. We have made progress. Too bad he’s the sole African-American actor in the film. In the upcoming Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, there are actors of color, such as Chuck Cureau as a news anchor.  He didn’t make it into the trailer, but then he may not have any fighting scenes. Who did make it into the trailer?  The dog, Argonaut. He’s voiced by Ricky Gervais.  Clearly this all-American family needs a dog with an English accent.  Now that’s the explicit curriculum for you.

Eisner, E. W., (1994). The educational imagination: On the design and evaluation of school programs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

What Year is It Anyway?

I haven't read Kathryn Stockett's wildly popular novel The Help, and I don't intend to see the soon-to-be-released movie produced by DreamWorks Studios.  I am not questioning the literary merit(s) of the novel, should there be any, nor suggesting that all works of art and literature should have socially redeeming values.  This isn't the Soviet Union in the 1930's.  Writers and artists in the United States enjoy incredible freedom and always should. Let the market decide on what succeeds and what doesn't.

What is particularly disturbing--and disheartening--is that what the market has decided on in the year 2011 is a novel about Southern, upper-middle class white women and their black maids.  Admittedly, I'm gleaning this from the advertisement of the movie in the Book Review section of yesterday's New York Times; I  don't know the actual details of the book, and I don't want to.  It's a bit too Driving Miss Daisy for me. I'm just surprised and disappointed that this is what passes for public discourse on race in this country. But The Help is only one example.

In the mail recently, I received the schedule for the Chicago-based Goodman Theatre's 2011-2012 season, and learned there is a play by David Mamet included, imaginatively titled Race, with performances beginning in January of 2012.   Here is the description of the play from the GT's own web site:  'Two high-profile lawyers—one black, one white—are called to defend a wealthy white client charged with the rape of an African American woman, but soon find themselves embroiled in a complex case where blatant prejudice is as disturbing as the evidence at hand. With characteristic bluntness, Mamet leaves nothing unsaid in this no-holds-barred suspense story which the Chicago Tribune declared “intellectually salacious.” '  Really? It's not Mamet's conversion to conservatism that I dread here; it's the banality that this scenario suggests.  Do we need a rehash of To Kill a Mockingbird?   I'm not questioning Mamet's skills as a writer.  I'm questioning the type of material that gets presented to the public on race. 

Yes, it's called 'show business' for a reason.  James Patterson knocks out several series of books, each closely matched to a particular audience.  Patterson knows what sells.  Mamet, too, knows what sells, just as the folks at the Goodman Theatre know what its subscribers want.  Give the people what they want, and remember that they're paying good money for what they want.   

One wonders what conversations about race will ensue following the reading or the viewing The Help?  What new insights will be gained by the audiences of Race?   Here in Chicago and across the country, we are continuously served up a heaping pile of elitist, cultural pablum about race.  The issues addressed in these works are, at best, only remotely connected to our current world.  They hold a mirror up to 1960-what??

The statistics on African-American male incarceration and participation in higher education are abysmal.  According to a recent study by Clarence Terry, Prisons, Pipelines, and the President: Developing Critical Math Literacy through Participatory Action Research,  (2010, 73-104), "African American males, however,  are being imprisoned at disturbingly high rates – in 2001, 1-in-6 had been imprisoned (Mauer & King, 2007), while latest trends project that 1-in-3 will go to prison in their lifetime (Mauer, 2009). African American males do not constitute more than a trickle in the higher education pipeline – hovering between only 4.7 and 7.6 percent of students receiving the Bachelor‟s degree in the three decades between 1976 and 2006 (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2008). "  Popular art and literature have not addressed these numbers.  Nor have they addressed the recent figures about the effects of the bursting of the housing bubble and the tumultuous drop in accumulated wealth among blacks and Latinos as compared to whites.

I have not forgotten the recent spate of documentaries and quasi-documentaries on lotteries and charter schools.  Works about little kids who need better schools are always a safe bet. But why not show a recording of a CPS Board Meeting and use that as a basis for audience participation? Why not attend a few local school council meetings and find some material for a new play, one that is grounded in some type of reality?  Better yet, why not attend a meeting of the John Howard Association and write about the effects of incarceration on the African-American community?

The arts and literature are letting us down big time. Better to remain on the side, safely cheering on a group of 1960-something African-American maids who stand up to their Southern-matron employers* than to help take on the huge hotel chains that sometimes deal unfairly with their housekeepers.  Oh well.  What kind of book would their story make?

*BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: OK, I peeked online. Who can resist a movie with characters named 'Skeeter,' 'Minny' and 'Hilly?'